What Does Octal Mean?
Octal refers to the base-8 numbering system. It comes from the Latin word for eight. The octal numbering system uses the numerals 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7. In computing environments, it is commonly used as a shorter representation of binary numbers by grouping binary digits into threes. The chmod command in Linux or UNIX uses octal to assign file permissions.
Techopedia Explains Octal
Octal is another way to count numbers. While humans normally count in tens, and machines count in twos, it is possible to use any number as the basis for counting and calculation. Some Native American tribes have used octal by counting the spaces between fingers. Characters in the 2009 film “Avatar” used octal because they had four fingers on each hand. Some mathematicians have proposed the wider adoption of octal.
